


Peeta's Epilogue

by bandwhore



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Book 3: Mockingjay, F/M, Nightmares, sort of an epilogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-30
Updated: 2013-12-30
Packaged: 2018-01-06 18:17:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1110052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bandwhore/pseuds/bandwhore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As they say, you can take a Tribute out of the Hunger Games, but you can’t take the Games out of the Tribute.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Peeta's Epilogue

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short thing I started writing last night, I was unhappy with the original epilogue so I decided to write my own second part.

The girl was screaming. The shouts tore out of her mouth and shredded my heart as I heard it. I couldn’t run to get her, there was a barrier in the way, I couldn’t reach her, she was screaming, crying, clawing at the invisible barrier to try and get to me. I couldn’t help her.

She wasn’t alone in there, there was someone else with her, but they were screaming too. Bloodcurdling shrieks penetrating my ears and stripping me bare. I thumped on the glass and shouted but it wouldn’t help. I had to watch as they were in their own little slice of hell. I couldn’t help her.

I smashed my hand on the barrier, begging it to let up, begging it to make the screaming stop. My fingers and knuckles cracked under the pressure. I just wanted to save her, to make her better, to make her stop. I tried to calm her, to reassure her that it was okay, but she couldn’t look at me. I again tried to grab her, to just hold her until it got better but I couldn’t. She screeched and it was torture for me to be able to do nothing. She put her hand up against the barrier and I matched it with mine. But I still couldn’t help her.

“PEETA” I woke. Katniss was shaking me, stroking my hair and clutching my hand almost as hard as I hers. I was in our bed, not in the arena. The Hunger Games had been abolished and my life was, as far as I could tell, in no immediate danger.  
“Peeta, honey, it was just a dream, don’t worry. Shh, it’s okay, you’re okay.” Her hands rubbed my face as she tried to reassure me. She grabbed me and clutched me to her chest in a warm embrace, and that was just what I needed to let it all out.

“I.. I was in the arena again. It was the Jabberjays. I can just see it so.. So clearly.” My face contorted in fear and sadness “It was so horrible. Your screaming. It was like I had my own Jabberjays, except I was actually seeing it. It was real, the Jabberjays weren’t. I was so scared that we were still there, that I couldn’t help you. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you Katniss” I sobbed into her shoulder, inhaling her scent and marking it in my memory, just in case, just in case I did lose her.

#####

I sat outside our house in the Victor’s Village. Haymitch was still in the house opposite, but it was just us three now. Pearlescent snow and ice layered the grass and paths, untouched and unblemished by foot marks. It would be quite a beautiful place, if it wasn’t for the circumstances in which people ended up here. It tainted it. The houses weren’t quite as grand as they seemed; the grass not as emerald as it could be.

All three of us had nightmares often. Haymitch’s were usually about his games, running toward the edge but not making it quick enough, an axe thrown to the back of his head. Katniss’ were often about the Muttations, the Jabberjays, her father’s accident, Prim. Mine were about losing her, the girl on fire, my girl on fire, or the Capitol. Haymitch didn’t have them as often as us, or if he did, he was better at hiding it. Screams in the night were so often heard from the Victor’s Village that nobody really cared anymore.

I thought the games were over after we left the arena the first time, lucky to be alive with Katniss. But they were just starting. The Victory Tour, the Quarter Quell, the rebellion, all just continuations of the same sick practice. People were upset when Katniss voted to hold one last Hunger Games, but I think I agree with her. The Capitol don’t know how truly horrifying it is to be in an arena, just awaiting your death. They should.

I have no doubts that there will be another rebellion. Maybe not for hundreds of years, maybe in five, but there will be another one. And who knows, maybe they’ll bring the Games back, even though it was their downfall this time. Nobody’s ever happy being ruled over, and the victors know how to fight it. The Capitol’s greatest weapon was their biggest weakness, the Games created weapons, victors could never be the same as before, never trust as they had previously, never be free of the nightmares which haunt them. Rebellion is only natural, but sometimes people care too much about the consequences. Victors can’t care.

My life has been irrevocably altered, I won’t be the same. Neither will Katniss, nor Haymitch, Johanna, Annie, Betee, anyone. But we’ll help each other. The Hunger Games will stay with us forever, and we have no choice with this.

As they say, you can take a Tribute out of the Hunger Games, but you can’t take the Games out of the Tribute.


End file.
